Abstract

High-profile corporate and political scandals and revelations around unethical work and corrupt practices currently dominate the news. Considering the very high proportion of young people displaying cynical and possibly corrosive attitudes around ethics in the work-place it is vitally important that this problem be addressed. In his work on ‘Five Minds for the Future’ (2006), and the Good Work Project (2007), Howard Gardner has proposed the ideals of ‘good work’, the Ethical Mind. Building on a conceptual model for affective development, the findings are aligned with current work around the concept of Communities of Practice, in particular those existing in a technology-enhanced virtual space. Several methods are identified as having value in developing the ethical mind in such spaces and these are summarised as a guide to aid cultivating ethics in such communities with the aim for their use in a case study concerning a community of ethical practice.